Frontal Lobe "Check Out" Stress Physiology

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Frontal Lobe “Check Out" Stress Physiology

The frontal of lobes of the cerebral cortex (higher, or human portion) of your brain defines the sense of self, and enable you to assess the appropriateness of behaviors. It is that part of your brain that gives you a sense of the body-mind or emotion in your body. It helps you make long-term goals and ponder your life's purpose. 

The higher brain (frontal cerebral cortex) is a region where more complex information is received and processed. It takes greater time to “upload” complex files to and within this most highly evolved portion of the brain. More simple messages about the limbs, trunk, organs, emotions, your body position and wounds are not as complicated of a “computer file” and can be handled easily and more quickly by the lower brain. 

The body wisely and efficiently uses the lower brain areas to receive these less complex messages. This can save your life, when there is not enough time for you to process every detail of a threatening experience but you may need to act or react instantly too. 

When the information received by your body and brain is perceived to be threatening, you'll need to either run away or fight for your life “Fight or Flight.. Freeze." The blood supply to the higher frontal cortex is diminished and signals are detoured to the more primitive and (reactive) lower brain. This part of your brain has already decided its action or behavior BEFORE the higher (more evolved) brain has had the chance to interpret the data, integrate the experience and choose the response most appropriate for your culture, your biology, and the expression of your uniqueness. 

In such a stress scenario, there may not be enough time to place action "on hold" until you're higher brain carefully analyzes all of the details of the experience. Messages about our subtle internal cues, tension patterns, abstract concepts and emotions are low priority when your body perceived danger, or lack of safety. 

When in stress physiology, a wider range or alternative adaptive strategies are not possible or desired. Tension in the body keeps awareness of these more subtle "files" walled off from your attention. This is a state of DEFENSE and root anchor wired into our neurology reinforcing stress response/reactivity and perpetuating living in a state of overwhelm, anxiety and PTSD. 

What places us in the sense of stress physiology? 

This occurs when the number of messages per second received overwhelm the brain. It may be in response to a physical, emotional, or chemical stressor. For example, when you're in a car accident, the messages about the position of your head, neck, shoulders, muscles, spinal joints, spinal cord, and the connective tissue are massively, and instantly reorganized. The higher brain is protected from sorting through the data. The brain and body locked into DEFENSE mode as the spine moves into a defensive posture. 

Another way this may happen is when the information received by the brain is in conflict with our cultural story of how things should be. We determine what our lives "should" be like, and expected roles of others in the culture. When someone or circumstance violates our story of what we are entitled to in this life experience, a similar process occurs with the same results. Stress /Defense physiology is promoted by our perceived lack of safety. 

When you are in defense, the more primitive parts of your brain are predominantly in control of your experience, your body and your life. 

Trauma is stored as vibration 

When an event occurs that our brain perceives as not being safe for us to fully experience, the energy and information of the event is translated into vibration, which is then stored as tension in the body. It is not unlike the after-image of a flashbulb. Our body and then walls off the offending energy and tension overtime with muscular spasm, spinal distortion, reduce breathing into the area and we reduced motion. 

Until it is safe to experience that energy again and our body developed the strategy to accomplish this, we cannot digest the information from the trauma nor can we feel whole or be truly well. 

Healing is reduced in defense, as is your ability to "find" those parts of your body that are the physical anchors to the alienated, isolated, abused, or denied energy that was never fully dealt with was also compromise when your body perceived the barrage of stressful input. Your ability to connect with, or touch those areas of your body, or to direct your breath into those areas also becomes impaired. You are unable to receive the message and "medicine" from that region. 

In defense, you tense more easily and your physiology also more easily returns to and sustain a state of stress. This becomes the body's new functional baseline. In this state we become more structurally rigid or armored. Our blood pressure tends to rise, our range of motion and emotion is decreased, and our reaction to the new stress is heightened. The brain continues to perceive life defensively, produces stress chemicals and inhibits the ability to pay attention to the incomplete "energy" or "unfinished business."  We focus upon the external threat to our stability, structure, organization, and identity. 

Posture, muscular tension patterns, connective tissue tension, choices in life, and even spinal alignment are your emotional reactions to a hostile and defensive perception of the world. Many of us remain in defense throughout our lives. The higher (more evolved brain) rarely has the opportunity to develop its unique properties and evolve new strategies for living in experiencing life. 

With Network Spinal Analysis / Somato Respiratory Integration (NSA/SRI), when you use your hands to touch your body, adding specific breath patterns, movement, and focus awareness, you can reconnect and safety to the body-mind and unlock its healing energy and wisdom. The body then moves away from defense and towards growth. It has an ability to reorganize at this point. 

When feeling safe, the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex may be given access to the previously unavailable files, which were locked away with vibrational anchors to the structural-spinal system. When we feel safe, we can evaluate present and past reactions for appropriateness. We can find ways to release tension, trapped energy, information, and distorted structures of the spine and body. 

We can feel more profoundly, we can use the subtle information within to make healthier choices. We can be more compassionate to others, and to ourselves. We can activate "internal software" for experiencing life, changing our course, and for healing. Our brain can pay attention to the body's tension patterns, its spinal alignment, its posture, in its current state. We have moved from defense and stressed state to safety, and from safety into GROWTH. 

In order to "fix" something we must first find it. Our bodies can better take inventory, as our brains feel safe to experience. Somato Respiratory Integration also along with Network Spinal Analysis care seeks to activate the self-observational and self-correcting strategies along with liberating the energy within to act as fuel for the internal transformation. Our hands instructed us to connect with the subtle vibration carrying the story of our lives. Our breath ignites the emotional brain to give more meaning to the vibration, and our higher brain gets to learn from our vibrational medicine. 

We do not have to re-experience an event in our lives, as that would be a restorative approach. Instead, we need to connect with the body part that was locked up at the instant we went into defense and survival mode. This will enable us to use the bound up energy once directed towards keeping parts of us separate from ourselves. By accessing and optimize one's personal resourcefulness... now free available energy can be used to facilitate the process we know as healing. 

We Listen. We Care. We Get Results.

dr. schuyler du bourdieu | dr. giovanna du bourdieu

Life's about moving forward.

Let's see if we can help you with any of your current health care goals. 

Take the next step in your healing journey.

All initial consultation with our doctor's to sit down and discuss any of your or your families health care needs will always be complementary. 

Make your Aches and Pains Disappear Naturally

Decrease Pain and Stiffness.
Release Spinal and Muscle Tension.
Reverse Poor Posture.
Reduce Stress.
Increase Energy Levels.
Relax your Body and your Mind

Feel Free to forward this along…

Each referral received is a precious gift of appreciation, and reassures us that we are fulfilling our daily mission: to provide the very best service possible while promoting optimal health, healing and well-being for all of our patients. If you know anyone who is sick, ill, in pain, suffering or at a crossroads in their life...Let's see if we can help them together!

Thank You for Your Referrals!

We Listen. We Care. We Get Results.
Rilascio Chiropractic Du Bourdieu Inc - an epicenter for resourceful living™

dr. schuyler du bourdieu | dr. giovanna du bourdieu |

1221 state street #200 | santa barbara, ca 93101

(805) 899 3333

Healing and Curing | Two Different Worlds

Healing and Curing | Two Different Worlds

The 12 Stages of Healing- A Network Approach to Wholeness

Dr. Donald Epstein

 Healing has little to do with the removal of symptoms. 

Rather, it is an intimate and integrative process that encompasses every aspect of our being – the entire spectrum of our existence. 

Healing transcends the simplistic notion of jumping out of a hospital bed or getting up from a wheelchair and walking; it involves the harmonious alignment of the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of our being and how we relate to the world. The result is a greater wholeness which is the birthright of every living being.

In his essay "The Spirit in Health and Disease," psychiatrist Laurence J. Bendit spoke   of healing as a process of rebuilding one’s life anew from chaos and disorder.

Healing is basically the result of putting right our wrong relation to our body, to other people and ... to our own complicated minds, with their emotions and instincts at war with one another and not properly understood and accepted by what we call "I" or "me". The process is one of reorganization, reintegration of things which have come apart. 

Healing and curing are not used interchangeably.

The word heal traces its roots to the Anglo-Saxon word hal, which means "whole," "hale," or "hearty." Rather than implying freedom from disease, healing involves root concepts like wholeness and wellness. These concepts imply self-empowerment, alignment, and integration, which enable us to fully express our unique potential as human beings in all aspects of life. Healing is often an uncomfortable process, but always empowering.

As we heal, it may appear that we are coming apart at the seams when we begin to wake up to aspects of ourselves that we were unaware of or were unable to acknowledge. 

But as we begin the process of discovery, acknowledgement, and alignment, our entire being is given permission to change. 

Through the natural, automatic release of old thought patterns, blocked emotions, and rigid ways of being, a new sense of respect for all our aspects and rhythms comes about. This is similar to the subtle, quiet, yet purposeful opening of a flower. In healing, no new magic is put into us and nothing is taken out.

Curing, on the other hand, implies that someone is trying to eliminate our disease, symptom,          or crisis, most commonly through medication, surgery, psychotherapy, or other modalities. 

In the words of Janet F. Quinn, Ph.D., R.N., professor of nursing at the University of South Carolina, 

Curing may be conceptualized as the elimination of signs and symptoms of disease. Typically people enter the health care system when indicators of illness can no longer be ignored. The signs and symptoms will be treated with medication, or if the signs and symptoms are severe enough, hospitalization will ensue. If, after a certain course of treatment by surgery and/or drug therapy, the signs and symptoms no longer exist, then we say that the person has been cured.
Curing has an important role. It offers us the gift of time so we might better understand the deeper significance of our symptoms. Curing can also offer us a greater degree of comfort to facilitate the process of realignment and redirection. 

When used as a stepping stone or rest stop to healing, curing can be beneficial. 

However, the way curing is regarded today can often deny the possibility of healing rather than facilitate it. 

Curing as an attempt to control our experience generally interferes with our ability to move into the unsolicited experiences we need to restructure our lives. When this occurs, instead of propelling us forward, curing holds us back.

Healing, leaves in its wake a sense of accomplishment, fulfillment, and empowerment…            Curing does not. 

Healing involves surrendering control of our inner and outer experiences. 

Curing involves an attempt to control our internal and external environments.

Healing promotes wholeness, an uninhibited expression of natural rhythms, and unprovoked forgiveness. Curing seeks to label the effects (not to causes) of disease, place blame, and give explanations and excuses for undesirable experiences.

The Spiritual Aspect of Healing

The spiritual side of human nature is an essential, yet often overlooked, aspect of the healing process. The word spiritual comes from the Latin spiritus and spirare, meaning "to breathe" or "to blow."  Spirit is something that cannot be seen, but can be experienced. In the poetic words of an anonymous teacher,

There is a force that is unfathomable, omnipresent, unnamable, and omniscient. This intelligent and loving force stands behind and guides the evolution of physical manifestation. Spirituality is the label used to describe what occurs when we connect with this source. 

        The source of spirituality has many names:  

Organizing Wisdom, Great Spirit, the Christ Within, the Atman, or God. 

Connecting with this source is an automatic process that often occurs when we least expect it.

Rather than being the result of searching and seeking, spiritual truth occurs by removing the blocks that prevent our knowing it. It is like being in a dark room and opening the blinds to let sunlight in. By opening to our spiritual nature, we open to the new and the unexpected. 

According to Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham in The Spirituality of Imperfection,

Spirituality points, always, beyond: beyond the ordinary, beyond possession, beyond the narrow confines of self, and – above all – beyond expectation.  Because the "spiritual" is beyond control, it is never exactly what we expect. 

The spiritual aspect of healing involves tapping into the deeper levels of being where our innate intelligence resides. 

As we connect to our inner rhythms and greater sense of wholeness, we begin to experience the rhythms, wholeness, and interconnectedness around us, which eventually expands to include the entire human and planetary community. 

Holistic physician and psychiatrist George L. Hogben described healing in Spiritual Aspects of the Healing Arts,

Healing may be defined as miraculous unfolding of consciousness for one’s being inthe world. We learn who we are, what and who really matter to us, how to express ourselves fully and openly. 

Ultimately, the healing journey leads to an intimate union with God through the experience of the flow of God’s spirit within. It is a slow, arduous passage, unique for each individual, filled with danger and risk, triumph and joy, and finally, peace, trust, awe, reverence, love, tenderness. 

Healing: A Broad Scope

Healing goes beyond dealing with a health problem or a healing crisis. 

It can also be used to enhance your relationships, career, financial investments, dietary habits, spiritual life, approach to education, the goods and services you use, and the institutions and causes you support. 

It is not intended as therapeutic information for any physical or emotional condition.

If you feel you need assistance from a health professional at any point in the healing process, please seek help; in some cases, doing do may even prolong your life. 

But do not confuse Curing with Healing. 

After you have addressed your immediate health concern, and you are out of impending danger and feel more comfortable, I invite you to return to the Twelve Stage healing process and move along the spiral path towards wholeness.

Life's about moving forward.

Let's see if we can help you with any of your current health care goals. 

Take the next step in your healing journey.

All initial consultation with our doctor's to sit down and discuss any of your or your families health care needs will always be complementary. 

Make your Aches and Pains Disappear Naturally

Decrease Pain and Stiffness.
Release Spinal and Muscle Tension.
Reverse Poor Posture.
Reduce Stress.
Increase Energy Levels.
Relax your Body and your Mind.

Feel Free to forward this along…

Each referral received is a precious gift of appreciation, and reassures us that we are fulfilling our daily mission: to provide the very best service possible while promoting optimal health, healing and well-being for all of our patients. If you know anyone who is sick, ill, in pain, suffering or at a crossroads in their life...Let's see if we can help them together!

Thank You for Your Referrals!

dr. schuyler du bourdieu | dr. giovanna du bourdieu

1221 state street #200 | santa barbara, ca 93101

Rilascio Chiropractic Du Bourdieu Inc - an epicenter for resourceful living™

We Listen. We Care. We Get Results.

Healing Myth | Healing Magic

Healing Myth | Healing Magic 

by Dr. Donald Epstein 

Reprinted from The New Times

We all have stories about how life is "supposed to be". There is a certain sense of entitlement deeply anchored in our body/mind that has been transmitted through our culture. These stories often guide ustoward destructive choices that may add to our illness, block our appreciation of healing, and even kill us. I refer to those 'cultural hallucinations' as myths. I believe that the right healing magic can help break the spell   of our illusions, and help us to reclaim our power to heal.

Our beliefs and expectations color our perceptions of life experiences. We experience symptoms, crises, and events by first reacting with our socially programmed 'emotional brain'. Our physiology has already reacted before the 'higher brain' has had the opportunity to process the incoming information and to assess the appropriate behavior. The higher brain determines if what we are feeling or sensing is dangerous or benign.

However, this brain information "processing center" has already been programmed by the prevailing cultural mythology. The emotional or knee-jerk type of response to the situation may override a more appropriate response. In my book, Healing Myths, Healing Magic, I divide our beliefs into four categories: Social, Bio-medical, Religious, and New Age.

Like all illusions, the power of our healing myths diminishes when they are recognized for what they truly are, stories that we can either accept or reject. I invite you to entertain the possibility that you are more powerful, creative, prosperous, and compassionate, and have greater healing resources, than you have ever imagined. I invite you to share my personal story that all beings are part of one community, that you are not alone, and that your experiences are not in vain.

You do not have to eat primarily from Tree of Knowledge to survive. You can receive the fruits of the Tree of Life, through which your biology, rather than your understanding, is sacred. Through fully experiencing your biology, you can express spirit more fully and live in a state of grace. From this space, you can gain true knowing, growth, and healing. As I present some myths, you may be tempted to disagree and insist that theyare not myths at all. The stronger that feeling, the more likely that particular story is deeply rooted in our culture and in- grained in your personal physiology.

A very powerful social myth is: In healing, to be average is normal and therefore desirable.  'Non-average' is considered pathological or deviant, something to be controlled by the culture of the physician, therapist, or court. Rather than applauding those who stand out from the crowd for their unique abilities or unusual accomplishments, we are suspicious of those who do not conform.

Our allopathic view of the body follows the same lines, and its applications are intended to bring everyone toa 'safe normal' or average. 'Normal' in a laboratory test does not mean 'healthy'; it just means average.

If this myth influences your life, you may respond to a concern 

by asking a doctor, "Is this normal?'

If you question whether your behavior is 'normal', or if you wait for the results ofa laboratory test to decide if you are healthy or sick, I suggest that you read the following statement, or 'magic', out loud and make it your affirmation for a day:

"I have no need to be average or normal. I surrender the need to fit into the expectations of others at the expense of my own evolution. At times, upon claiming my wholeness, I may look, sound, or 'test' non-average.  I joyfully celebrate my loss of normalcy, and claim my authenticity, sanity, and health."

Today, the New Age myths resonate strongly within our culture. New Thought has brought about many shifts in human consciousness in the past forty years. Concepts such as the interconnectedness of life, a desire to heal the rift between our physical and social environments, and the questioning of old paradigms in relation to government, business, education, and religion are all products of New Age thought.

Central to these tenets is the belief that we create the major and minor events in our life through individual intent, thoughts, feelings, and will. When this New Age ideal is viewed through our prevailing or old mythology, where the Tree of Knowledge is our mainstay, serious health consequences occur. What results is the construct that through knowledge, or though proper thought, we can have dominion over our environment.  This can be expanded to mean that God, Goddess, or the gods are subject to our thought or will, and presumes that we are knowledgeable enough to know what needs to be changed or controlled.

There is often a desire to replace masculine with feminine, to replace the first and second sexual centers, or chakras, with the heart or crown energies. There is the assumption that being sweet, loving, positive, or pure is more powerful and healthy than expressing anger, resentment, force, or sexual energy. Sweetness, avoidance, intention, and transcendence often replace authenticity, confrontation, action, structure, and experience.

We may not speak with our parents or others because they disempower us, and instead choose to sit at the feet of our guru. We may break up a relationship or quit a job when it no longer feels right or good. We take the full spectrum of experience and eliminate those aspects of consciousness that do not fulfill the mythology of our behavior in this subculture.

If we have pain, we choose prayer, herbs, energy medicine, natural remedies, forgiveness, or love rather than drugs or surgery. However, the same old story remains, although the means or applications we choose to control our experiences have changed. In both cases, the story is that what we are experiencing is bad or wrong and needs to be controlled or eliminated. Often the New Age mythology leads us to believe that being healthy means liking one's experience, and that the experience needs to be gentle and loving. Therefore we believe that emotional, mental, or spiritual purity has not been achieved if we feel or perceive something that does not fit our picture of entitlement. This New Age mythology can be counterproductive to our healing.

I spoke about this myth at a public lecture. At the end of the talk, a woman in a wheelchair maneuvered herself toward me with tears streaming down her face. She blurted out, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She went on to say that she was an incest survivor, and had asked herself why she created her stepfather having sexual relations with her. She was also tormented over why she had created her son committing suicide, why she had caused her uterine cancer, hysterectomy, a divorce, a tornado that destroyed her Texas home, and, finally, her multiple sclerosis.

Over the past twenty years this woman had felt progressively more guilty and helpless over a series of events. She bought the myth - you create your own reality - hook, line, and sinker. The power of this myth in her life made her feel responsible for situations that were largely beyond her control. Tremendous damage to every system of the body resulted as she continued to shoulder self-blame.

In that lecture I stated that although we do set forces into motion that can influence certain outcomes, many circumstances are apparently independent of our volition, actions, intents, and desires. At times, the main lesson to be learned is that the universe does not personalize events. Certain events occur within or around us that are, in fact, often in spite of us.

The woman mentioned that as I made these statements, she felt as though a heavy weight was removed from her chest, head, and legs. She told me that something magical had happened to her during the talk.

Her thinking was changing, and for the first time in over twenty years she did not feel like a "waste of humanity, a worthless piece of flesh." She looked deep into my eyes as she held my hands and said, "It is not for me to create my reality. It is for me to experience what I experience without having to judge or make up a story about it."

I do not know what has since happened in this woman's life. I do not know if she regained the use of her legs. Becoming ambulatory in itself would not, however, be "proof" of her healing. I suspect that in questioning our cultural mythology, she was becoming more whole than she had been since her childhood. As she created a new story, the healing process would have led her to different choices, different actions, and a different life.

As an antidote for the prevailing "you create your own reality" myth, I suggest the following healing magic:

I am not responsible for creating my external reality. I am responsible for my internal state of mind, emotion, and vibration. I am responsible for focusing my attention on my inner environment in relationship to my life circumstance. It is my gift to become aware of the state of tension, pain, or ease in my body/mind, and to accept my experiences - pleasant or unpleasant - with non-judgment and love.

Healing is about the person inside. It is not the circumstance of the moment that is of concern. Healing is about becoming more whole, not about a predetermined outcome or type of feeling you desire. Healing is instantaneous, although visible outcomes may take time. Healing can occur 24 hours a day with or without a trained professional, and is free for the taking.

People will tend to seek out practitioners whose procedures are consistent with their stories. As you heal, your stories will spontaneously change. I encourage you to read Healing Myths, Healing Magic and examine the 34 myths that have placed a spell on our healing. I invite you to invoke the magic that can break the spell of these illusions and help you to reclaim your power to heal.

Rilascio Chiropractic Du Bourdieu Inc - an epicenter for resourceful living™

Higher Level of Human Function

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Network Spinal Analysis (NSA)

Allowing a Higher Level of Human Function

Interview with Dr. Donald Epstein

by Jenny Thomas Published in Positive Health Magazine, June 2005

From time to time an extremely elegant and sublimely simple procedure or protocol will arise from an already existing, long established technique...

Network Spinal Analysis | could be described in this way, arising as it did when in 1982, New York Chiropractor, Doctor Donald Epstein began "networking" various chiropractic techniques. Through meticulous observation and by comparing the findings and results of one method with another, he began to see the efficacy of marrying certain techniques in a manner which enables the practitioner, through the use of light touch to release large amounts of spinal tension from a patient. Although this might not sound very dramatic, it is a fact that the absolutely remarkable 'life-changing' ways in which patients respond to this method of care has become a hallmark of NSA. This unique approach to health is a synthesis of long standing chiropractic methods, quantum mechanics, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology while also acknowledging changing perspectives in health care. In Dr. Epstein's case, these changes involve an expanded interpretation of the concept of 'wellness'.

Dr Epstein: "Network Spinal Analysis sits within a new paradigm which I have been developing internationally and that's called the Wellness Paradigm.

Wellness is not about whether a person has disease.

It's about their internal experience of their body, the ability to make constructive healthy choices, and their ability to enjoy life and be well.

Wellness is that state of concern in which you are relatively invincible, nothing can ruin your day, you feel alive, vital and confident and experience a high state of well-being.

When you experience wellness, your circumstances of the moment do not easily upset your internal state."

Findings from Network care have been documented in major University studies which examine the social science and bio-medical indicators of wellness by looking at a variety of different things people do to increase their health levels.

A person who meditates daily, has buns of steel from exercise and the most expensive urine on the planet from supplements, and who has stopped doing the destructive things, will double their perceived wellness factor.  

However, if that person then adds Network Care, their wellness factor - their ability to make healthy life choices and stick to them - triples!

"What we are looking at here is an experience of life beyond the usual form. A more subtle engagement with the parts of the brain that allow a person to express their higher level of humanity and function occurs so that a greater capacity to express more connections of compassion and love arises.

I call these 'higher end social changes', because there are spiritual connotations involved. The individual is different in the way they relate to others and their environment. They can be instrumental in helping create a more compassionately productive community."

To understand the 'mechanics' of NSA, we must first remind ourselves that the spine is composed of bones sitting on top of each other with discs or pads in-between. These bones or vertebrae have holes like donuts in them.

These holes create a spinal-canal for the spinal cord which extends from the base of the brain to the tail-bone.

The central nervous system is comprised of the brain and the spinal cord and is supported by an intricate system of tissues called the meninges, that are filled with fluid which nourishes and protects the nervous system, all of which sits within the spinal canal, protected by the bony vertebrae.

Connective tissue attaches this system to the top and bottom of the spine and this tissue is subject to stresses, tension and distortion.

We perceive our world through the nervous system.

It is also through the nervous system that we coordinate the function of every cell, organ and tissue in the body. Every region of the body and every emotion is expressed through the nervous system.

Also it's the part of us with which we reason and which adapts us to stress and it's the vehicle we use to create our conscious reality.

So, when an event occurs that our brain decides is not safe for us to fully experience at that particular time, the energy and information of the event is translated into vibration and tension, which is then stored in the body.

This tension begins to distort the spinal system: Spinal bones (the vertebrae) lose their normal alignment and muscles and ligaments strain and pull.

Nerves can become compressed or stretched and irritated which results in abnormal function. As the nervous system is put under pressure, the spine is no longer able to right itself without outside help.

Our body then 'closes off' the offending energy and tension, but over time, muscular tightness, spinal distortion, reduced breathing into the area occurs and consequently reduced movement results. Until it is safe to experience that energy again, and digest the information from the trauma, we cannot really feel whole or well.

Dr Epstein: "This is a very real thing - anyone who is at the crossroads of life, physically, emotionally or spiritually, or anyone who cannot get further than they were before needs Network care to help their brain to move from stress physiology which results in a person's structure being fixed in defense posture.

In fact most of us remain in defense mode throughout our lives and this can retard the higher, more evolved area of the brain from developing its unique properties and evolving new strategies for experiencing and responding to life. There are many people whose vertebrae, ligaments and tissues are locked into stress patterns, creating so much tension, that their focus in life is just getting through another day! Network care allows the brain to move from the stress physiology into safety."

Wellness is not about whether a person has disease. It’s about their internal experience of their body, the ability to make constructive healthy choices, and their ability to enjoy life and be well. Wellness is that state of consciousness in which you are relatively invincible, nothing can ruin your day, you feel alive, vital and confident and experience a high state of well-being.

So how does the practitioner go about relieving this stress?

Dr Epstein: "I found that by using gentle and specific touches in a consistent sequence, where the spinal cord attaches to the spine, a patient's own body learns to release complex patterns of tension and areas of disablement. Once this has been achieved, a further unwinding of deeper tensions from the spine occurs.

These 'touches' consist of gentle finger or hand contacts applied at 'spinal gateways' or 'access points' along the neck and lower spine. They are applied in such a way as to engage the higher part of the brain, the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex.

This is the most recently developed region of our brain and is the area through which we observe ourselves and make choices regarding our behavior. This is the area through which we can reach a higher level of humanity, one which embraces spirituality and evolution."

During Network Spinal Analysis care, two 'healing waves' develop. One is a respiratory (breathing) wave which releases tension throughout the spine and body and relaxes a person. The other is called somatopsychic (or body-mind) wave, which is associated with undulation or movement of the spine.

Dr Epstein: "The mathematics of this wave are unique because it appears that this type of wave has not been reported anywhere else, so it has to be a signature in Network care.

The theory being purported now suggests that as the individual progresses through levels of care, that wave, that signal along the spine is organizing high levels of complexity.

That means there's more letters in the language - more words available and ultimately more information becomes accessible.

There is an evolutionary aspect to this in that there is an increase in the ability of the system to self-organize so it can have more appropriate views about the environment and become more energy efficient. Thus an outcome is produced, that is significantly beneficial to the species and that was not there before".

"What we are looking for in Network is for the system itself to reorganize and develop strategies for experiencing and releasing tension on its own.

In the first level of care, which may last a few weeks, the person develops a strategy to connect the brain to the body more effectively and to develop a capacity for self-correction of the tension patterns.

The care program encourages the development of spontaneous stretching movements and breath movements which help release tension in the spine. In the second level of care, we are looking for the brain to be aware of the person's tension, and actually temporarily amplify that tension and redirect it so that the tension actually becomes the fuel for further healing and transformation.

Tension is what holds a person anchored in a position of non-safety. Lack of safety is the basis for all physiological stress and the way we accumulate this stress is directly associated with the way we experience our world."

Dr Epstein: "I would like to see Network Spinal Analysis practitioners in places like cancer clinics and working with people who have had recent heart attacks; serious trauma patients and those who have had emotional traumas as children. I see Network Care not as competing with the existing medical paradigm, but instead offering a totally different approach that says no matter what you do about the disease, allow that person to be upgraded from say a 64k computer to a Pentium. Allow them to develop new strategies that they never had before and that person will make healthier choices.

They will become more at peace and ease with their life and they will have a greater capacity to heal which often means the disease going away. And if the disease doesn't go away, at least that person's life is going to be richer than it was before. Network Care is an approach to wellness that embraces everyone. Babies, children, seniors. All can develop these strategies which allow a higher level of function."

"A man who came to a talk I was giving, told me he had metastatic prostate cancer. He had had surgery and radiation treatments and the cancer had gone away but now it was back and spreading and he was very worried. I asked him what he was afraid of and if he was afraid of dying. He said, "No, I'm afraid of the way I have to die if I go for further chemotherapy and radiation." It is upsetting that the treatment has to take away a person's dignity which in my opinion can never heal. But I asked him what he would have to do differently if he was going to die. He said that he would have to get his affairs in order so I asked him what he meant by that. "Well," he said, "I haven't spoken to my son in twenty years and I never forgave my wife for dying." And he went through a variety of things. I asked him why he would have to do these things. He said so that he could die in peace and I said, "Sir, this is a mistake, it's so you can live in peace." For some people, the only way they can make the changes which will enable them to live in peace is at the very end of their life."

"And the point of this is - there are people who have cancer who never know it and who live full and perfectly wonderful lives. I know of one Network doctor I met at a seminar recently who told people that she is more alive, more compassionate and responsive with more feelings of gratitude than ever before. Six months previously, she had a breast removed, and for six weeks before that she had received chemotherapy. The other people who had had chemotherapy and surgery at the same time were not receiving Network care. Her internal state of wellness was so high irrespective of her circumstance, that she could be well and produce the physiology that would allow for a person to heal."

Dr Epstein: "When someone comes to me for care, I do not have to know what it was that caused that person's problem.

What I do know, is how to intervene, to help their system to observe itself and to make a change.

I have clinically dedicated myself to furthering the knowledge of the biological links which will help us express a greater range of our humanity. I believe that by optimizing an individual's biology, Network Spinal Analysis will facilitate positive transformation on a global scale, changing the world, a spine at a time." 

New Strategies | A Research Perspective

Network Spinal Analysis: A Research Perspective
Published in The Chiropractic Journal
By Donald Epstein, D.C.

"NSA is a unique system for advancing spinal and neural integrity;                                         developing new strategies of self-organization, and living life from the “inside out”

I am proud to report that studies of NSA patients’ self reported changes span the largest range of health and wellness domains for a non-medical approach. Even more exciting is that this study performed through the University of California, Irvine College of Medicine indicates improvements in all areas surveyed. Strikingly, 76% of the 2,818 patient self-reported retrospective assessments show statistically significant improvement in their Physical, Emotional, Stress, and Life Enjoyment categories of health and wellness as well as their overall quality of life. Even in patients in care for more than 3 years, there appeared to be no ceiling to improvement.

Network Care is associated with significant improvement in self-rated perceptions of “wellness.” Patients who have been under care the longest time reported the greatest improvement in wellness. This retrospective study reflects a large epidemiological group and could be a benchmark for future studies assessing health and wellness related outcomes among patients with a more holistic view of health. 

The completed longitudinal study followed a population in care over a one year period. The data collected further validated the questionnaire used to measure wellness and quality of life, and gave us great insight into the strong changes patients achieve in Network Care.

It was found that patients continue in care long after symptoms reduce or disappear. They make healthier choices in their life and enjoyed life more. The study of people receiving Network Spinal Analysis demonstrated that people found reasons other than physical symptoms to continue in care. This was revealed by their improved wellness and quality of life indicators.

Network care is delivered to enhance improvement in the patient’s passive, active, neural, and emotional sub-systems, advancing their spinal and neural integrity. Outcome assessment revealed predictable and reproducible development of new strategies of self-organization as one progressed through a series of Levels of Care.

Each Level of Care appears to be accompanied by an increase in self- awareness and self-responsibility by the patient for his spine, and nervous system, in relationship to his healing and life.

Rather than attempting to fix or control any problem, including nerve tension, pressure, stress, pain, fixation or subluxation, or to return a patient to a previous state, an NSA practitioner will seek to promote new properties within the nervous system and spinal tissues. These properties are believed to assist in advancing spinal and neural integrity, wellness, quality of life and self organization, allowing the expression of a greater degree of wellness. 

Research demonstrates that even if a patient changes diet, exercise, meditates, and performs other health promoting practices, the wellness index questionnaire does not predict greater wellness, unless there is also a greater level of life enjoyment. This is paradigm shifting information. In my opinion, this supports the concept that an internal state of well being helps empower the educated choices we make, and that doing “the right things” does not necessarily produce wellness and health. Increased wellness helps our lifestyle choices to work for us.

The improvement in each of the domains of wellness almost doubled when NSA care was applied, as compared to when only constructive health/lifestyle changes were implemented.

You may have seen, experienced, or heard about the two types of natural body waves, one respiratory and one somatopsychic, that develop uniquely in Network Spinal Analysis care. These waves are believed to dissipate tension and re organize the functioning of the spine and nervous system. The awareness of the waves in patients is the most significant predictor of enhanced wellness on all levels measured.

The “somatopsychic wave” is a consistent, repeatable physiological phenomenon which can be studied as a non-linear mathematical model. This is of interest to other disciplines studying the dynamics of human function. At the University of Southern California, the NSA population is being studied to assess certain mathematical aspects of biological self-organization. Moreover, in a group of people expressing the “somatopsychic wave”, it has been observed that movements of the larger spinal muscles exhibit synchrony, or “entrain” within the population. 

Preliminary studies demonstrate that the organization of the surface EMG signal (recorded on patients possessing the strategy of the Somatopsychic wave) develops greater levels of complexity as the subjects progressed through subsequent Levels of Care.

An exciting next step in research will be to characterize the mathematics of this wave in relation to each Level of Care. This would permit a correlation between each of the Levels of Care and such aspects of patient progress as enhanced self-organization. 

I am actively supporting further clinical investigation. I believe it is essential to conduct ongoing research to further understand NSA’s mode of action. This will advance our knowledge and improve the quality of service we can provide to the public.

I have clinically dedicated myself to furthering the knowledge of the biological links which will help us express a greater range of our humanity. I believe this will help us make healthier choices for ourselves, be to be a more compassionate, vital, creative, self aware, and responsible human culture. I believe that by optimizing the individual’s biology, NSA will facilitate positive transformation on a global scale, changing the world a spine at a time. 

 

“Network Care has a direct effect on client self-reported wellness which is twice thatexpected from healthy lifestyle practices (exercise, risk avoidance, optimal food choices).  Network also has a major indirect effect on wellness by promoting healthy lifestyle choices.”

R.H. Blanks, Ph.D.                                                                                                                   Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology | University of California Irvine

Reclaiming Your Power to Heal

Reclaiming Your Power to Heal

Exploring Cutting Edge Wellness Integration Concepts & Strategies for Evolution                              As Discussed in Healing Myths, Healing Magic

By Dr. Donald Epstein

 

Healing involves journeying towards a greater experience of the life energy that animates, inspires, coordinates, and heal…  In coming home to healing and wholeness, there are a series of questions you may begin to ask of yourself, to help make the transition from the old story of curing your symptom or condition, to the new story of healing your body-mind.  

These questions are not intended to diagnose disease, but to help the patient discover “the person inside.”  The person inside is the one who develops conditions and resolves them, as distinguished from the condition itself.  Asking yourself these questions may give you a better perspective of your circumstance, and empower the healing process.

In the questions below, you will evaluate whether you have the same health concerns as a family member, regardless of the symptomatic expression.  If so, are they truly your concerns and your creation?  Did you experience your concerns as your own, or as that of your parents, for example?  It is common for people to have similar health concerns as other family members, with or without manifesting similar symptoms.  We learn our stories of the world from our family, friends, and mentors.  They teach us how to respond to life when we are placed under stress or challenged by unexpected situations.

1.    If you have a health concern, have any other family member had a similar concern?

2.    What did she/he do about it?

3.    Did it seem to work?

4.    What did the treatment “working” mean to her/him?

5.    What was different about her/him after treatment?

6.    What was different about the symptom after treatment?

7.    What was different about her concern about the condition after treatment?

8.    What have you done about this health concern?

9.    Did it seem to work? 

10.    What did the treatment “working” mean to you?

11.    What was different about you after the treatment?

12.    What was different about the symptoms after treatment?

13.    What was different about your concern about the condition after treatment?

To effectively monitor your own healing process, it is essential to separate the following three things: 

 Your symptom | Your concern about the symptom | Your assessment of yourself?

…Rather than asking, “How do I feel?” concerning the symptom, you might ask, 

“How do I feel about how I feel?”  Referring to the person inside, who is experiencing the symptom and projecting his/her story onto it.  For example, you may have shoulder pain that bothers you, but the pain is not the basis of your concern.  Your concern is that you will not be able to play golf as you normally do. For someone else, the concern may be that the symptom is an indication of a more serious disease. For another persistent pain is linked to their emotions, while for others, pain is viewed as the lack of motion (or lack of emotion) in a part of their body.  Sometimes you may experience pain and still feel okay; there is just pain.  At other times, the pain becomes your focus and major preoccupation.  Again, the experience of pain is not as important as “How, do you, the person experiencing and giving significance to the pain, feel about it?”

It is of clinical experience that people who just want to “fix the symptom,” and do not wish to discuss their personal relationship to that symptom (including the life they have lived, or the concerns about the symptom), often have a powerful disconnection from an energy that has become separated from the rest of their body-mind.  The symptom itself is rarely the problem.  The major concern is tied into the story this person has about the world, and how she/he views issues like rapid change, chaos, and not being in control of her/his situation.

The very act of acknowledging that our symptom, our concern, and the story behind our concern are separate issues is part of the healing process.  When we are “disconnected” from the energy and awareness of our body-mind, all three issues merge into one.  As we heal, each of these questions can be addressed individually.  Eventually, we are able to separate whether we have just a symptom, or a worry that we will not be able to do something, accomplish something, achieve a goal, or feel what we do not like feeling.  Often, the concern is associated with a fear of loss (such as vitality, power, spouse, finances), or the ability to work, sleep, or have fun.  As our healing progresses, we gain the ability to assess one aspect of our condition without having to reflect upon the other two factors.  Usually this is accomplished only after a greater awakening to our body’s language, pulsations, breath, and movement.

When we are ready to dedicate ourselves to wholeness, the following questions may help us to further separate the experience of the symptom from the concern, and place it in the context of our daily life.  It is interesting to see how life shows us what it needs by helping us to focus on those activities, thoughts, or relationships that may be causing disharmony.

Ask the Question|Explore the answer|discover wisdom

1.    How is this symptom or situation altering my work? Play? Rest? Sleep? Relationships? Sex and love life? Concentration? School? Other activities or functions?

2.    As time progresses, even if the symptom persists, is there less of an effect in all these areas of my life?

3.    If the symptom disappears, are the above areas of my life still affected?

4.    Is there any time, activity, or place I can go where I totally, or almost totally forget about the symptom or the concern itself?

5.    Is there anything I do, or any place I go that intensifies the symptom or my concern?

(The next set of questions will often give us a direct answer that shocks us.  First, quiet yourself and gently breathe while touching the part of your body you have concern about.     

Now ask yourself:

6.    Why do I think this has happened or continues to happen to me?

…Wait for a response.  Then write down anything that comes to you.  Keep writing nomatter how ridiculous or out of context the answer may be.  Know that your body-mind   wants to be healthier and wants you to know the truth.

7.    Is this the soul cause of my problem? 

 …Wait a minute or two before you write down your answer.

8.  If the answer is no, what else is involved?

In continuing to assess your healing, it is important to ask yourself the following questions:

1.    If this condition were to go away tomorrow, what would be different about my life?  (What would I be doing differently at home, work, play, or in relationships if I did not have this symptom or concern?

2.    Would I have made that change if I did not have the symptom or concern?

3.    How else would I have allowed myself to make that change?

4.    Have I touched or rubbed a part of my body that I usually do not pay attention to, more, or differently, than before?

5.    Have I talked to other people and pointed to this part of my body that I usually do not consider?

6.    Have I cried, moaned, dropped to my knees, or fallen in a position that surrenders to my body’s rhythms?

7.    When was the last time I did that, and what was going on in my life at that time?

8.    What would have had to happen in my life to get me to take time to do this?

9.    What do I think my body-mind is trying to tell me has to change?

10.    What do I need that I am not getting?

11.    What do I have to give that I am not giving?

12.    Can I truly experience my symptom, condition, or situation as a gift?

 

Return to Wholeness

Connect ~ Release  |  Transform ~ Refine  | Awaken ~ Expand